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Dozens of companies across Britain and Europe are hiking salaries and offering bonuses for frontline workers performing essential services as the country struggles to stay upright during the coronavirus outbreak, which has triggered one of the worst economic crises in decades.
From supermarkets and telecoms companies, to food groups and warehouse drivers, companies across several sectors are pulling out the stops to look after their employees amid the almost complete shutdown of the economy in the wake of social distancing requirements, which has led to a wave of business closures and government-backed furloughs.
BT BT.A, +6.02% on Monday committed to no job losses related to the coronavirus crisis for at least the next three months, and said each of its 100,000 employees will be given shares worth £500 in the telecoms giant in June.
The FTSE 100-listed company has also decided to offer an annual pay increase of 1.5% effective from 1 July 2020 to its nonmanagerial staff in the U.K. “At the same time, BT has decided not to make an annual pay increase to its managers in 2020/21,” the company said in a statement.
Some of the U.K.’s biggest supermarket chains, whose employees are deemed critical by the government, have been the quickest to offer staff a boost.
Tesco TSCO, +1.94%, Aldi and Marks & Spencer MKS, +12.28% have all offered between 10-15% for employees, with some offering paid leave for up to three months for staff considered at risk as they come into daily contact with shoppers.
Morrisons MRW, +0.82% has said staff will be paid a 6% bonus on their earnings over the next 12 months, which represents an extra £1,050 for full-time employees. Staff who are off sick or self-isolating will also receive the payout. The company has also introduced a “colleague hardship fund,” which allows employees to apply for funds if they are struggling to make ends meet.
Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Lidl are adjusting to a surge in consumer demand for groceries, hiring scores of staff.
Tesco, which will take on 20,000 new staff, said it had seen 140,000 views on its Tesco Careers page. “Over the coming days thousands of new colleagues will join us in helping to feed the nation,” the company said.
Packaged food groups are also stepping up recruitment with Natco, Heron, owned by B&M BME, +4.39%, and Brighter Foods all seeking warehouse and production workers on Indeed, the recruitment platform. Heron is offering a 10% premium on its hourly rate “as a thank you for working during the COVID-19 lockdown,” as well as up to £75 in performance-based bonuses each week.
Bread maker Hovis, which is 49% owned by Premier Foods PFD, +1.12%, is also seeking warehouse workers and drivers to deal with “critical” demand for food to be distributed across the country.
“Now more than ever, it is vital that we keep manufacturing and distributing our bakery products to our customers so that we can ensure a supply across the U.K. and keep bread on the shelves,” the company, which is promoting vacancies across the U.K., said.
The increase in hiring among crucial sectors comes as almost 1 million people in the U.K. have applied for state benefits since Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the public to stay at home, a huge spike from the 100,000 claims in a typical two-week period.
To help companies in financial difficulties during the pandemic, the U.K. government has stepped in to help pay people’s wages. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in late March that the government would pay 80% of the salaries of workers furloughed due to the pandemic — up to £2,500 a month, with the option for employers to top that up.
Other companies helping staff include Compass Group CPG, +7.34%, which has increased the salaries of its almost 8,000 staff working with the National Health Service by between 8% to 17%. The catering company has said frontline employees will also be able to collect food boxes from Foodbuy, its procurement business.
Costa Coffee, which is owned by Coca-Cola KO, +6.48%, will top up pay for employees relying on the government’s job retention scheme, filling the remaining 20% of their usual wages.
On the continent, French food group Danone BN, +0.68% has said that all employment contracts will be secured and wages guaranteed for its 100,000 employees world-wide until June 30. It is also providing extensive health, child care, and quarantine coverage for staff, as well as handing out bonuses for those working on site during the pandemic.
Rival Nestlé NESN, -0.11% is offering free meals and transport to staff where needed in an effort to minimize risk of infection. The Swiss-based food and drinks group is offering sick leave arrangements for those who contract the virus, as well as providing loans for those under financial distress. It has pledged a minimum of 12 weeks at full pay for all staff.
Virgin Media, which still has teams of engineers on the streets carrying out network maintenance and construction, has raised salaries by an average of 2.2% this month. It is also recruiting an extra 500 workers for its call centres, which have seen an increase in customer demands amid the lockdown.
Several U.K. airlines are asking staff who have not been working since the COVID-19 pandemic grounded some planes to consider helping the thousands of doctors, nurses and other medics at the new hospitals being built across the country.
EasyJet EZJ, +19.66% has already written to all 9,000 of its U.K. based staff, including 4,000 cabin crew who are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, while Virgin Atlantic wrote to approximately 4,000 of its employees from March 30, prioritizing those with the required skills and training.
